The next day, Tuesday, the 9th of April, the “Great Eastern” weighed
anchor, and set sail to enter the Hudson, the pilot guiding her with an
unerring eye. The storm had spent itself in the night, and the last
black clouds disappeared below the horizon. The aspect of the sea was
enlivened by a flotilla of schooners, waiting along the coast for the
breeze.
A small steamer came alongside, and we were boarded by the officer of
the New York sanitary commissioners.
It was not long before we passed the light-boat which marks the channels
of the Hudson, and ranged near Sandy Hook Point, where a group of
spectators greeted us with a volley of hurrahs.
When the “Great Eastern” had gone round the interior bay formed by Sandy
Hook Point, through the flotilla of fishing-smacks, I caught a glimpse
of the verdant heights of New Jersey, the enormous forts on the bay,
then the low line of the great city stretching between the Hudson and
East river.
In another hour, after having ranged opposite the New York quays, the
“Great Eastern” was moored in the Hudson, and the anchors became
entangled in the submarine cable, which must necessarily be broken on
her departure.
Then began the disembarkation of all my fellow-voyagers whom I should
never see again: Californians, Southerners, Mormonites, and the young
lovers. I was waiting for Fabian and Corsican.
I had been obliged to inform Captain Anderson of the incidents relating
to the duel which had taken place on board. The doctors made their
report, and nothing whatever having been found wrong in the death of
Harry Drake, orders were given that the last duties might be rendered to
him on land.
At this moment Cockburn, the statistician, who had not spoken to me the
whole of the voyage, came up and said,—
“Do you know, sir, how many turns the wheels have made during our
passage?”
“I do not, sir.”
“One hundred thousand, seven hundred and twenty-three.”
“Ah! really sir, and the screw?”
“Six hundred and eight thousand, one hundred and thirty.”
“I am much obliged to you, sir, for the information.”
And the statistician left me without any farewell whatever.
Fabian and Corsican joined me at this moment. Fabian pressed my hand
warmly.
“Ellen,” said he to me, “Ellen will recover. Her reason came back to her
for a moment. Ah! God is just, and He will restore her wholly to us.”
Whilst thus speaking, Fabian smiled as he thought of the future. As for
Captain Corsican, he kissed me heartily without any ceremony.
“Good-bye, good-bye, we shall see you again,” he cried to me, when he
had taken his place in the tender where were Fabian and Ellen, under the
care of Mrs. R——, Captain Mac Elwin’s sister, who had come to meet her
brother.
Then the tender sheered off, taking the first convoy of passengers to
the Custom House pier.
I watched them as they went farther and farther away, and, seeing Ellen
sitting between Fabian and his sister, I could not doubt that care,
devotion, and love would restore to this poor mind the reason of which
grief had robbed it.
Just then some one took hold of my arm, and I knew it was Dr. Pitferge.
“Well,” said he, “and what is going to become of you?”
“My idea was, Doctor, since the ‘Great Eastern’ remains a hundred and
ninety-two hours at New York, and as I must return with her, to spend
the hundred and ninety-two hours in America. Certainly it is but a week,
but a week well spent is, perhaps, long enough to see New York, the
Hudson, the Mohawk Valley, Lake Erie, Niagara, and all the country made
familiar by Cooper.”
“Ah! you are going to the Niagara!” cried Dean Pitferge. “I’ll declare I
should not be sorry to see it again, and if my proposal does not seem
very disagreeable to you—”
The worthy Doctor amused me with his crotchets. I had taken a fancy to
him, and here was a well-instructed guide placed at my service.
“That’s settled, then,” said I to him.
A quarter of an hour later we embarked on the tender and at three
o’clock were comfortably lodged in two rooms of Fifth Avenue Hotel.